Hi All,
Just a quick note from the capital of the land down under, Canberra! I hope this finds all my nearest and dearest happy & well.
I'm especially thinking of Padre Burgart as he is in the final days of preparation & packing for his return to Costa Rica for La Ruta de los Conquistadores http://www.adventurerace.com/eng/about-race.htm -- an epic mountain bike adventure race from the pacific to the atlantic coast of Costa Rica. Dad has riden La Ruta 7 times over the past years -- I am very, very proud of him (and a bit worried and anxious too), and I'd ask all my friends to wish him the very best of luck over the dates of Nov 14 - 17.... it's a superhuman undertaking, and despite my dad's amazing strength and conditioning, it's a brutal adventure and he'll appreciate all good thoughts. You can email him at calatlaruta@hotmail.com, or check his website for updates: http://eteamz.active.com/sites/calburgart/index.cfm?
It's been a very busy week for me, with not a lot to report under the "exotic travel" category -- despite the cool accent of our hosts, and the lovely locations of our meetings, it's really been a fairly unremarkable work week -- with nonstop meetings, presentations, dinners, lunches, and even breakfasts for schmoozing -- I've been in "meet and greet" mode for what seems a little like forever, but I must say I've been enjoying the fabulous local wines (all for the good of the cause, of course!).
I haven't had much time for photos, but here's my collection from my afternoon in Sydney Harbor and Zoo, enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/KimberlyBWeir/SydneyAustraliaNov5th?authkey=6y8cjxZZ44o
As a quick recap, I left Mumbai on Saturday AM after a wonderful dinner at the home of Mahijeet, Soina and Tarika Singh -- and began my travel to Aussieland. I arrived in Singapore to find a new boarding pass awaiting me, as my flight had arrived too late to catch my connection (and thus, I missed my chance to ride on the new A380, the "dreamliner", drat!). Of course, if one must spend an unexpected 4 hours in any airport in the world, I think I'd take Singapore any time -- it's positively gorgeous with orchid gardens, all the madison avenue shops, and even my favorite, Shanghai Tang! I enjoyed some decadent window shopping, and then camped in the very comfy lounge to get some work done before boarding at about 1am for Sydney.
I arrived in Sydney about 11am, thrilled to return to this beautiful city -- and especially the totally hip Taj Hotel Blue. The weather was glorious, and after a wonderful catch up with Bobby on the phone, I rounded up Hatice (my colleague from Fairfax County, who arrived from VA on Sunday AM) and we went out for an afternoon of "power-fun" on Sydney Harbor. We had a lovely lunch at Circular Quay (pronounced "key"), and then took the ferry over to Taronga Zoo -- the zoo with a view! We rode the aerial tram to the top and wandered our way back to the water, enjoying all the local fauna -- koalas, kangaroos, emus, crocs, elephants and even a wombat! Our time was pretty short, so we motored through the zoo and back across the ferry in time to walk back to the hotel through the botanical gardens and then met up with Morris (who had flown from India on Friday) and Geoff (one of my consultants based in Canberra) to review our game plan for the week.
I won't bore you with the details of our work meetings, but we spent Monday & Tuesday in Sydney -- with a wonderful dinner at Darling Harbor with our partners from Sydney who had supported our seminar earlier that day with the highlight of fireworks over the water. Tuesday afternoon we had the chance to observe the phenomenon of Melbourne Cup activities as all the young professionals came pouring out of their offices about noontime, dressed to the nines, to gather in a myriad of watering holes to celebrate the "Race that Stops a Nation". We were at the Qantas lounge awaiting our flight when the pretty grey named Efficient made her bold move and won the race in commanding style, then we were off to Adelaide. We were in Adelaide less than 24 hours, but enjoyed it very much -- especially the very warm welcome of our partners there. We had gorgeous weather, great food, excellent attendance at our event and even a quick tour about town before dashing back to the airport en route to canberra. We were scarcely here in the hotel 5 minutes before our first engagement, a dinner for many of our partners here. Today, we had about 35 at our seminar -- which started promptly at 7:30am, and after a full day of meetings, I just got home about a half hour ago from a lovely dinner hosted for us by the ACT government. ... it's just about midnight on Thursday, Friday is Diwali -- I need to send a note to all my friends in India!
So, tomorrow we wrap up our time in Canberra and I take my last domestic flight of the journey as we travel to melbourne, where we'll get a nice weekend to catch up and take in some sights -- including the races on Saturday! Monday & Tuesday I'll do work in Melbourne, and then head home on Wednesday.
I'll send another missive before I fly home -- thanks for all your kind thoughts and notes.
All's well here in tomorrowland -- happy friday to everyone in yesterday!
Love,
Me
Just a quick note from the capital of the land down under, Canberra! I hope this finds all my nearest and dearest happy & well.
I'm especially thinking of Padre Burgart as he is in the final days of preparation & packing for his return to Costa Rica for La Ruta de los Conquistadores http://www.adventurerace.com/eng/about-race.htm -- an epic mountain bike adventure race from the pacific to the atlantic coast of Costa Rica. Dad has riden La Ruta 7 times over the past years -- I am very, very proud of him (and a bit worried and anxious too), and I'd ask all my friends to wish him the very best of luck over the dates of Nov 14 - 17.... it's a superhuman undertaking, and despite my dad's amazing strength and conditioning, it's a brutal adventure and he'll appreciate all good thoughts. You can email him at calatlaruta@hotmail.com, or check his website for updates: http://eteamz.active.com/sites/calburgart/index.cfm?
It's been a very busy week for me, with not a lot to report under the "exotic travel" category -- despite the cool accent of our hosts, and the lovely locations of our meetings, it's really been a fairly unremarkable work week -- with nonstop meetings, presentations, dinners, lunches, and even breakfasts for schmoozing -- I've been in "meet and greet" mode for what seems a little like forever, but I must say I've been enjoying the fabulous local wines (all for the good of the cause, of course!).
I haven't had much time for photos, but here's my collection from my afternoon in Sydney Harbor and Zoo, enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/KimberlyBWeir/SydneyAustraliaNov5th?authkey=6y8cjxZZ44o
As a quick recap, I left Mumbai on Saturday AM after a wonderful dinner at the home of Mahijeet, Soina and Tarika Singh -- and began my travel to Aussieland. I arrived in Singapore to find a new boarding pass awaiting me, as my flight had arrived too late to catch my connection (and thus, I missed my chance to ride on the new A380, the "dreamliner", drat!). Of course, if one must spend an unexpected 4 hours in any airport in the world, I think I'd take Singapore any time -- it's positively gorgeous with orchid gardens, all the madison avenue shops, and even my favorite, Shanghai Tang! I enjoyed some decadent window shopping, and then camped in the very comfy lounge to get some work done before boarding at about 1am for Sydney.
I arrived in Sydney about 11am, thrilled to return to this beautiful city -- and especially the totally hip Taj Hotel Blue. The weather was glorious, and after a wonderful catch up with Bobby on the phone, I rounded up Hatice (my colleague from Fairfax County, who arrived from VA on Sunday AM) and we went out for an afternoon of "power-fun" on Sydney Harbor. We had a lovely lunch at Circular Quay (pronounced "key"), and then took the ferry over to Taronga Zoo -- the zoo with a view! We rode the aerial tram to the top and wandered our way back to the water, enjoying all the local fauna -- koalas, kangaroos, emus, crocs, elephants and even a wombat! Our time was pretty short, so we motored through the zoo and back across the ferry in time to walk back to the hotel through the botanical gardens and then met up with Morris (who had flown from India on Friday) and Geoff (one of my consultants based in Canberra) to review our game plan for the week.
I won't bore you with the details of our work meetings, but we spent Monday & Tuesday in Sydney -- with a wonderful dinner at Darling Harbor with our partners from Sydney who had supported our seminar earlier that day with the highlight of fireworks over the water. Tuesday afternoon we had the chance to observe the phenomenon of Melbourne Cup activities as all the young professionals came pouring out of their offices about noontime, dressed to the nines, to gather in a myriad of watering holes to celebrate the "Race that Stops a Nation". We were at the Qantas lounge awaiting our flight when the pretty grey named Efficient made her bold move and won the race in commanding style, then we were off to Adelaide. We were in Adelaide less than 24 hours, but enjoyed it very much -- especially the very warm welcome of our partners there. We had gorgeous weather, great food, excellent attendance at our event and even a quick tour about town before dashing back to the airport en route to canberra. We were scarcely here in the hotel 5 minutes before our first engagement, a dinner for many of our partners here. Today, we had about 35 at our seminar -- which started promptly at 7:30am, and after a full day of meetings, I just got home about a half hour ago from a lovely dinner hosted for us by the ACT government. ... it's just about midnight on Thursday, Friday is Diwali -- I need to send a note to all my friends in India!
So, tomorrow we wrap up our time in Canberra and I take my last domestic flight of the journey as we travel to melbourne, where we'll get a nice weekend to catch up and take in some sights -- including the races on Saturday! Monday & Tuesday I'll do work in Melbourne, and then head home on Wednesday.
I'll send another missive before I fly home -- thanks for all your kind thoughts and notes.
All's well here in tomorrowland -- happy friday to everyone in yesterday!
Love,
Me
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